After 13 hours of public comment, the Atlanta City Council has voted to approve millions of dollars for the development of the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, disparagingly called “cop city” by anti-police activists.
Comment began at 1 p.m. Hundreds of residents took to the podium to slam the project, saying it would be a gross misuse of public funds to build the huge facility in a large urban forest in a poor, majority-black area. The testimony at times grew testy, with councilmembers struggling to quiet the rowdy crowd. Shortly before 5: 30 a.m. Tuesday, having exhausted all speakers, the City Council passed the vote to the boos of the crowd that still remained.
The City Council passed the resolution with a vote of 11 to 4. The no votes came from Jason Dozier, Liliana Bakhtiari, Keisha Sean Waites, and Antonio Lewis, Fox 5 reports.
As the vote was being called, the crowd broke into the chant of "Cop City will never be built."
This week's vote was on whether the City Council should give $31 million for the development of the $90 million training center. The Atlanta Police Foundation is to foot the rest of the bill.
